Particle Rendering

Can someone explain how the client decides which particles to render. I have a build that incorporates particles. When I had it in a sandbox, it looked great. As soon as I took it to another sim, I am seeing like 1/2 the particles displayed at random intervals. I have no other particle systems in my field of view. I even went and upped my Max. Particle Count to 3072. That didn't help either. Looking around the sim I do see a monster snow storm (5 snow emitters pumping full blast) about 100m away. But, I thought particles were client side and I assumed that if they weren't in my FOV, they wouldn't count against that max. count.

I believe the rendering of the particles... and the calculations involved in tracking them over time is client-side. However, the creation of particles is still based on the server-side script. So, your script may have spit out 100 particles every 0.1 seconds in the sandbox sim, but when loaded onto a different sim, the script doesn't get as much time... so it's only able to spit those particles out at the rate of 100 per 0.3 seconds.

I believe the server sends particle system just as other objects - but the client handles the actual production of individual particles, moves them, fades them, etc.
The reason the snow particles were counting was because the particle limit is for simulated particles, NOT rendered particles. It would be no good if as soon as you turn away from a particle system, all the particles disappear, and when you turn round again, they start to form..

Well, that sucks. But at least I understand now. Thanks.